Yum annoyance: "[Errno -1] Metadata file does not match checksum" over and over

[Kam Leo]

On 7/12/07, Andre Robatino <andre at bwh.harvard.edu> wrote:
>   Recently, the error "[Errno -1] Metadata file does not match checksum"
> often happens repeatedly while trying to download the file
> primary.sqlite.bz2 from different servers.  It's common for this to
> happen around a dozen times or more, which since the file is 3.8M can
> add up to 50M just to download metadata to find out whether there are
> updates.  For those on dialup, this is a major pain.  Why is this
> happening?  For example
>
> [root at localhost ~]# yum update
> Loading "installonlyn" plugin
> Loading "presto" plugin
> Loading "dellsysidplugin" plugin
> Setting up Update Process
> Setting up Presto
> livna                     100% |=========================| 2.1 kB
> 00:00
> dell-software             100% |=========================| 1.9 kB
> 00:00
> adobe-linux               100% |=========================|  951 B
> 00:00
> fwupdate                  100% |=========================|  951 B
> 00:00
> updates                   100% |=========================|  383 B
> 00:00
> dribble                   100% |=========================|  951 B
> 00:00
> fedora                    100% |=========================| 2.1 kB
> 00:00
> Reading Presto metadata in from local files
> presto.xml.gz             100% |=========================|  95 kB
> 00:00
> primary.xml.gz            100% |=========================| 6.2 kB
> 00:00
> primary.xml.gz            100% |=========================| 1.0 kB
> 00:00
> primary.xml.gz            100% |=========================|  30 kB
> 00:00
> updates                   100% |=========================| 1.9 kB
> 00:00
> primary.xml.gz            100% |=========================|  23 kB
> 00:00
> primary.sqlite.bz2        100% |=========================| 3.8 MB
> 00:11
> http://mirrors.kernel.org/fedora/releases/7/Everything/i386/os/repodata/primary.sqlite.bz2:
> [Errno -1] Metadata file does not match checksum
> Trying other mirror.
> primary.sqlite.bz2        100% |=========================| 3.8 MB
> 00:11
> http://mirrors.kernel.org/fedora/releases/7/Everything/i386/os/repodata/primary.sqlite.bz2:
> [Errno -1] Metadata file does not match checksum
> Trying other mirror.
> primary.sqlite.bz2        100% |=========================| 3.8 MB
> 00:11

[snip]

Yum is dumber than dumb when it comes to the mirrors list. It just
goes down the list until a working site is found. Connection quality
and speed are not used. You probably need another plugin, i.e.
fastestmirror, to get mirrors that work with your connection.
[Disclaimer: I do not use fastest mirror and cannot vouch for it.]

The other choice is to examine the mirrors list, find a site that
connects reliably, and hard code the site into the .repo file. [I use
this method.]